A layover occurs when a driver of a truck waits (typically, but not necessarily, overnight) before continuing with the activity he/she was doing (such as driving). Many layovers are mandated by rules of a government, and less frequently the rules of a carrier that owns or operates the truck. For example, under recently announced U.S. Federal rules, truck drivers are not allowed to drive (A) more than 11 hours, following 10 hours off-duty, (B) beyond the 14th hour after coming on-duty, following 10 hours off-duty, and (C) after 60/70 hours on-duty in 7/8 consecutive days (a driver may restart a 7/8 consecutive day period after taking 34 or more consecutive hours off duty). Note that these are merely exemplary of government rules; variants could be in effect in other jurisdictions or at other times. Carriers may also impose layover-related rules upon themselves or commit such rules to their driver forces for the purposes of improving driver quality of life and thereby better attracting and retaining these employees.
When truckload transportation carriers are hired by shippers to carry goods, layovers incurred as a result of such rules while driving enroute between origin and destination normally do not result in charges to the shippers. As per U.S. Federal rules, such layovers are recorded in a log. For example, after a layover has been completed, the start time and the end time of the layover is recorded in the log. Such recording may be done either manually or automatically. Automatic creation and maintenance of driver activity logs is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,341 granted to Bird, et al. on Feb. 25, 2003 and entitled “Paperless log system and method”. See also U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,331 granted to Lyons, Jr. on Mar. 23, 1999 and entitled “Electronic calculator for determining truck driver log book values.” Both these patents are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
In addition to the above-described mandatory layovers during extended stretches of driving, it may be necessary for a mission to incur a layover at the time of delivery at a destination, or during pickup at an origin, or both. If a layover during delivery and/or pickup is not caused by or attributable to the carrier or government rules, then the carrier will typically charge the shipper for the layover so that the carrier is compensated for lost time and potentially lost revenue from their resources (human and physical). For example, suppose that a truck and driver arrive at a destination at 4:30 PM and both the destination's operating hours and the carrier's defined business hours end at 5 PM. If unloading will require 1-2 hours then, because there is only half an hour until the facility closes, unloading will not be able to complete until the following day. Because the trucking carrier's definition of “normal” business hours ends at the same time, the truckload carrier's rules implicitly recognize it as “reasonable” for the completion of unloading to wait until the next day, so there will be no charges to the shipper as a result of the layover. However, if the truck arrives at its destination at 3:30 PM, then there is sufficient time before the carrier's defined “normal” close of business at 5 PM to unload the truck. In this case, if a layover is caused because the consignee's dock closes at 4 PM or if the consignee's dock is busy unloading other shipments, then the carrier will charge for the layover.
The cost of a charged layover is typically specified by the carrier to be a fixed amount, for example, $275 per overnight layover during the week. If the layover is incurred over a weekend, then the charge may depend on the distance traveled between the last stop before and the first stop after the layover (effectively, the distance covered during the weekend). A weekend layover is commonly charged in the following situations:    a) The truck's physical arrival time at a facility augmented by the required load and/or unload time there falls within a weekend (Saturday or Sunday) and the loading/unloading activity at the facility occurs after that weekend. The distance used to determine the charge is based on the distance between the previous facility in the trip's itinerary and this facility.    b) The truck's physical arrival time at a facility augmented by the required load and/or unload time there falls on Friday but after closing hours on Friday according to the carrier's defined “normal” business hours (or “layover calendar”), a schedule of operation used for the purposes of layover rate determination. The distance used to determine the layover charge is based on the distance between the previous stop in the trip's itinerary and this facility.    c) The truck's physical arrival time at a facility augmented by the required load and/or unload time there falls on Friday before closing hours according to the layover calendar but the loading and/or unloading activity there takes place after the weekend. Distance used to determine the layover charge is equal to zero.
On the other hand, a weekday layover is charged when a truck's physical arrival time at a facility augmented by the required load and/or unload time falls within a weekday (Monday through Friday) during hours of operation (according to the carrier's layover calendar) and a layover is scheduled to take place at that time while the actual loading/unloading of the truck occurs at a later time. A weekday layover fee is charged once per weeknight satisfying such condition.